Bielby, “Women and Men in Film”
Abstract Dick.This research essay titled Women and Men in Film: gender Inequality Among Writers in a Culture Industry by Denise D. Bielby and William T. Bielby examines the gender inequality that exists among film writers, specifically feature film writers. When a film is written by a man, they don’t say that it is a “men’s pictures,” but when a film is written by a women, many people still call it “women’s pictures.” There is certain stigma and predetermined perception of films written by women. People don’t expect women to write big-budget action films, but they expect them to write romantic scripts. However, the authors of the article say that although one might think that feature film writers might face greater gender inequality than television writers, it is quite the opposite. The article goes into specific reasons of why this isn’t so. The article then goes into an overview of women writers’ participation in feature film from the silent ear to the present. Key Concepts Overview: In the silent film era, most successful screenwriters, scenarists and writers were women. However, as time progressed that “substantial female presence has been displaced by men” (Bielby). Even before the silent film era, in 1840, at least half of all novelists were women. As the field became more lucrative and in high demand, more and more men joined in and then became a male dominated field. This is the same thing that happened in film. More and more women writers were displaced by men writers and women were put under a limit of writing only for “women’s films” or for “writing dialogue for female stars, and for infusing the ‘women’s angle’ into films more generally. Of course, the reality is quite different; women screenwriters have been associated with successful scripts in every film genre, and many ‘women’s films’ have been scripted by men” (Bielby). Cumulative Disadvantage: To see if women have a disadvantage regarding wage and earnings in the film industry, Bielby takes 11 years of data from 1982 through 1992 that show the earnings trajectories of 4,093 writers who worked at least once during that period. Their findings show that women faced a substantial net disadvantage “compared to men of similar age, experience, minority status, and recent employment history” (Bielby). As the years working in the industry increase, the gender gap in earnings also increase with the gender gap in earnings as low as 4 to 6 percent at career entry, growing to 20 percent or more with five years in the industry, and 40 percent or more by the fifteenth year in the industry. This shows that although at career entry, women and men writers might be shown equality, there is definitely a gender gap and discrimination against women writers as time in the industry increases. Feature Film Writers vs Television Writers: The authors of this article argue that there is more gender inequality when it comes to television writers. Their previous research paper studied inequality in television writers and they found that “compared to male television writers of similar age, experience, and track record, women earn 11 to 25 percent less through their careers” (Bielby). This is because television genres are “much more highly institutionalized in the organizational structures of the studios and networks” (Bielby). This means that each broadcast network has separate development divisions for each genre such as drama, comedy, daytime, etc. This makes it easier for women television writers to be segregated into the division that has to do with “women-typed” genres such as romance, daytime programming, children’s programming, etc. Another reason women television writers face more gender inequality is because of advertising revenues. Advertising is crucial in the television business and are specifically placed in the television programming to cater to a specific audience. Advertisements in movies are basically trailers and do not have a specific audience group. The authors say that “in television, who is watching can be as important as how many people are watching. For example, an action-adventure series in development at a network might be targeted to an 18-to 35-year-old male audience, and advertising rates might be set based on a network guarantee regarding the size of the audience within that age/gender group. Films do not have to worry about who watches the film. They just need to worry about how many people watch the film because a ticket that a young man buys is the same cost as the ticket an older woman buys. This decreases the need to typecast writers by gender in film. Examples This gender underrepresentation and inequality is not just among film writers; it also carries on into film directors and even actors. An example of this gender inequality can be seen through the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test is a set of three simple criteria. “In order to pass, a film must: (1) feature at least two women, who (2) speak to each other, (3) about something other than a man… Over the past 14 years, 45% of films have made the grade” (Guibourg). Although it might not seem that bad when looking at the percentage of 45%, this statistic means that 55% of movies for the past 14 years didn’t pass the simple criteria of the Bechdel test. Another example of this can be shown by the remarks made by Manohla Dargis, a film critic for the New York Times. She talks about the double standards of Hollywood and says “ The great irony is that women are accused of making romantic comedies, as if it’s a bad thing, but Days of Summer Marc Webb makes a romantic comedy and he gets Spider-Man his next project. Are you kidding me? You cannot win” (as quoted in Silverstein and Kang) Resources and further reading 1) http://bechdeltest.com/ This website has a list of movies and indicates whether it passes the Bechdel test or not. It also provides data, statistics, and charts regarding these movies and also has links for further information regarding women in film. 2) “Golden Globes by gender: where are all the women?” by Clara Guibourg in The Guardian This article talks about the Bechdel test and how “of 2013’s 50 most successful films at the box office, the minority that passed the Bechdel test actually made far more money than those that didn’t” (Guibourg). The article lists the Golden Globe best film nominees and indicates whether those movies passed the Bechdel test. 3) “Women’s Movement?” by Amy Dawes in Directors Guild of America This article shows the stories of women film directors. The article talks about how “in 2013, only nine percent of Directors Guild of America features released in theaters were directed by women” (Dawes). This article hopes to promote change, inspire, and encourage girls and women to pursue a career in film by interviewing some of those women directors that succeeded. 4) “Meryl Sreep Funds Lab for Women Screenwriters Over 40” by Gordon Cox in Variety This article talks about how famous actress Meryl Streep funded a screenwriters lab for women writers over 40. This lab called the Writers Lab “aims to increase opportunities for female screenwriters over the age of 40” (Cox). 5) http://www.nywift.org This website is the website for the New York Women in Film and Television. It is a resource for women in the film industry and has links to events, media, outside resources, etc. Keywords Film Women Gender Inequality Digital Divide Citations Bielby, Denise D., and William T. Bielby. "WOMEN AND MEN IN FILM: Gender Inequality Among Writers in a Culture Industry." Gender & Society 10.3 (1996): 248-70. JSTOR JSTOR. Web. 10 May 2015. Guibourg, Clara. "Golden Globes by Gender: Where Are All the Women?" The Guardian. N.p., 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 May 2015. Silverstein, Melissa, and Inkoo Kang. "Quote of the Day: Manohla Dargis: "The Movie Industry Is Failing Women"" Women and Hollywood. N.p., 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 May 2015. Category:Reading